Great setting, pretty good food

I was a little worried about splurging on a meal here, given some of these reviews. But I'm pleased to say that our service was great, and the food was very good. Maybe that $26 hamburger is not quite worth what they charge, and the $15 cocktail price is steep, but everything else was yummy and priced about the same as any other nice joint in NYC. What I like best about Minetta Tavern is the locale (in the heart of the village) and the old-school, small-space vibe. It feels very authentic New York to me.

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99 out of 199 people found this review helpful.

Horrifying

It's perplexing that NY Mag would give this place a recommendation. During our dinner, the food was poor quality, overcooked and bland - steak was inconsistent temperature throughout, fish was dry and underseasoned. Front-of-house staff inattentive and rude, even when seating us 30 minutes later than our reserved time. Waitress was average, but suffers additional deductions for failing to describe portions properly or provide guidance on which entrees were a la carte. Atmosphere was too loud to have a conversation without shouting. Haven't New York diners gotten past these flash over substance restaurant experiences? I'm sorry to have been sucked in by what are normally reliable reviews from this magazine's writers.

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106 out of 209 people found this review helpful.

Horrifying

It's perplexing that NY Mag would give this place a recommendation. Food was poor quality, overcooked and bland - steak was inconsistent temperature throughout, fish was dry and underseasoned. Front-of-house staff inattentive and rude, even when seating us 30 minutes later than our reserved time. Waitress was average, but suffers additional deductions for failing to describe portions properly or provide guidance on which entrees were a la carte. Atmosphere was too loud to have a conversation without shouting. Haven't New York diners gotten past these flash over substance restaurant experiences? I'm sorry to have been sucked in by what are normally reliable reviews from this magazine's writers.

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100 out of 207 people found this review helpful.

Good food, less good service

The burger was very good (although my "medium-well" came out red through and through.) While the food was good, our waitress was quite rude, the service a bit slow and it was extremely loud in the restaurant making it difficult to talk.

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113 out of 228 people found this review helpful.

Tone down the wait staff

The menu, daily specials and cocktails are terrific. The ambiance is very Keith McNally, which is why many people go there. Our meal started out with a very animated waitress who we feared after 5 minutues would be the best or the worst we had. It turned out to be the worse. I felt like I was in a Broadway show as she literally read every item in the menu for us and the description, we we could clearly read ourselves. Her theatrics were distracting and we had to live it again as she went thru her show for the table to our left and then to our right. We decided to sample 4 appetizers, which for 2 people at $20+ each is more on a final bill than the 2 chaps having burgers next to us. When she realized we hadn't decided if we wanted an entree or not, her demeanor changed, and the theater curtain came down. She told us we would not be given another opportunity to order more food. and said we were making a big mistake. We asked for our apps staggard, and they came 5 mintues later all at once. She couldn't get us out quick enough. We were so disappointed that such a great restaurant with great food had hired this theatrical mess that ruined our $250 dinner.

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154 out of 285 people found this review helpful.

never thought i'd meet a burger i didn't like!

but was disappointed with the one i got a minetta tavern, despite it having 2 burgers on the menu - one of which is $26.. it's really a consistency issue.. i'm sure others have really enjoyed their burger there - tho i feel its a roulette game for me now..
a Mac n Chi's review is at http://macnchis.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/how-do-you-screw-up-a-burger-ask-minetta-tavern/

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201 out of 399 people found this review helpful.

Really pleased with my meal

I don't know if my table just happened to order correctly, or if every last item on the menu is really tasty, but we were unanimously very happy with our food. Our bone marrow appetizer was fatty and decadent and delicious. The oxtail and foie gras terrine was similarly decadent and flavorful. I particularly liked the pig trotter entree, as it was crispy and juicy and tender all in one bite. And of course, the black label burger, at least for me, lived up to the hype. It tasted like a super juicy steak on a bun -- there's a really strong beefy taste to it that I loved.
The service was a little off -- our waitress took away our bread bowl as we were still working on our apps. A server took away our wine glasses, despite our still having wine left in the bottle. The cocktails arrived about 15 minutes after our food did. All slightly strange things, but nothing that affected our meal really. Despite some blips in service, the food was solid across the board. Worth the wait for the reservation!

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225 out of 417 people found this review helpful.

Thanks, McNally.

I had heard such amazing things about Keith McNally's Minetta Tavern, so I managed to secure a 6:30 reservation on a Wednesday night this past summer. I'm usually not hungry at 6:30, but I showed up right on the dot. It was a three person reservation, and two of us were there. They refused to seat us until the 3rd person showed up. Now, I would have understood if it was a 6 person reservation, but we were missing 1 person! Not to mention we were squeezed in by the service door, and they messed up both our wine and food orders! Terrible service, amazing burger, weird waitress with a fake French accent. An interesting evening, that was over by 8:30 as they hustled us out the door.

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222 out of 401 people found this review helpful.

Don't go for brunch

Disappointing experience. The service was terrrible with the waitress actually rude with an attitude not worthy of sunday brunch. We waited nearly an hour for food which was good, not great. It honestly felt like Minetta was trading off it's name and using this as a reason for poor service, average food and high prices. And as a party of 6 we were handed the 20% gratuity included which we definitely would not have paid if we had a choice. The host was apologetic upon leaving but too little too late... Love other McNally restaurants and would stick with them and avoid Minetta.

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203 out of 410 people found this review helpful.